Christchurch: Brendon McCullum belted the fastest century the world has seen on Saturday as he thrashed the Australian bowling in a landmark innings to celebrate his final Test.

New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum en route his 54-ball Test century against Australia at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

At the end of his explosive 145-run innings, the popular New Zealand captain felt a mixture of pride in what he had achieved and embarrassment at breaking a record set by his childhood hero Viv Richards.

New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum kisses his wife Ellissa after his feat in Christchurch on Saturday. PIC/Getty Images

With a stream of sixes and fours, McCullum brought up his 100 in just 54 deliveries, two fewer than the previous record of 56 achieved by West Indies’ great Richards 30 years ago and Pakistan’ Misbah-ul-Haq in 2014.

McCullum cluelessWhen he charged down the wicket and sliced Josh Hazlewood for four to bring up his century, McCullum had no idea it was a record performance and after he found out he was slightly uncomfortable at removing Richards’ name from the record books. “He was my idol growing up. I’m almost embarrassed to go past him to be honest but hopefully he enjoyed a little bit of the stroke making.”

Sir Vivian Richards

There were 21 fours and four sixes in McCullum’s innings with the first six setting a new world record for total Test sixes, overtaking Australian Adam Gilchrist, who hit 100.

Attack is the best defenceWith New Zealand fighting to save the series after losing the first Test, McCullum’ aggression had set his side up for a first innings 370 and Australia were 57-1 at the end of the first day. The 34-year-old, who retires from international cricket at the end of this Test, said that when he went to the middle on a seaming wicket, and with New Zealand in trouble at 32-3, he felt attack would be the best form of defence.

And he knew early on that luck was on his side. “Probably second ball when I had an almighty, filthy slog and sort of managed to go over the slips cordon for four,” he laughed.

“When you’re confronted with wickets like that and you know you’re going to have to be pretty aggressive you need some luck along the way.” When he was joined by the equally belligerent Corey Anderson (72) they put on 179 runs in 110 deliveries. “It was great fun and it was also instrumental in us being able to, hopefully, set the Test match up for us,”McCullum said.